Friday, April 21, 2017

Ghost Ranch

Today is Ghost Ranch day. Georgia
O'Keefe bought a small plot of land in the middle of a dude ranch
called Ghost Ranch. I think Ghost Ranch itself is about 35 square
miles and Ms. O'Keefe spent many years painting the surrounding
landscape. The dude ranch was sold to the Presbyterian Church in the
mid-fifties and the church currently still owns it. There are
several tours offered at Ghost Ranch – I have elected to take a
Landscape Tour. This is a tour where you get on a bus and they take
you to various sites, show you the picture that O'Keefe painted and
then show you what she was actually painting.

I get to the ranch, walk up the steps
to the welcome center and tell a lady with a name tag and a big hat
that I am here for the tour. She rushes up, grabs me and gives me a
huge hug. “I'm so glad you are here – you are our only client
for the tour today” she says. Part of me thinks “Super”, while
the other part thinks “oh geez, now I will have to really pay
attention to everything that gets said”. Luckily, in the next
fifteen minutes, two other women spontaneously join the tour. Now
this is the perfect size tour group.

After a fifteen minute movie, we get on
the mini-bus with big windows and go through a gate which keeps the
plain tourists out. We are getting a behind-the-scene tour. Yay!!!
It really was fun – it was more of a conversational type of tour.
Kate, the tour guide would tell little anecdotes about Georgia and
her life on the ranch.

Such as:

Georgia bought a Model A for $650 but
she didn't know how to drive. One of her friends tried to teach her
but quit after Georgia ran into a barn. Another tutor was teaching
her and when he was asked if she was a good driver he said – Not
really, but she is fearless.

Ghost Ranch has many hiking trails that
I could take Miko on. I meant to come back on a following day and
spend time doing that but it was not meant to be.

About Me

Retirement is grand!! I'm sorry I waited so long to get started on this phase of life. I used to travel all the time but then I got involved in the world of Icelandic Horses. That took up all of my time and money. I still have a couple of horses. I'm now trying to fit husband, horses and extended travels into the very limited 24 hours of the day. As so many others have said....how did I ever have time to work?